


professional interest

by WattStalf



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Sexual Content, bullshit crossover, rape mention, this idea was dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-06-02 14:20:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6569677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie is referred to a psychologist by his employers and begins seeing a Dr. Quinzel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started this a long time ago for shits and giggles. I don't know when this is getting updated or where I'm going with this or why, but yeah. I was joking about crossovers that exist just to ship two favorite characters, and since Harley was once a favorite to write and Eddie is a current favorite to write, this happened. It's a dumb idea, but I'm following through with it, damn it.

“Mr. Blake, Dr. Quinzel will see you now.”

Eddie rose from his seat, scowling, but when he passed the receptionist, he gave her a quick smirk. She was young and pretty, and even in his current bad mood, he could still appreciate that. But as soon as he was past her, approaching the doctor's door, his scowl returned.

He didn't need this. He really fucking did not need this, and he wasn't sure why he was being forced into it. Didn't the higher-ups trust him anymore? Wasn't being a top agent enough for them? Did they really need to question his own judgment on what he needed? Why wasn't showing up and doing his job enough for them?

Why the hell did they think he needed to see a goddamn shrink?

He opened the door to the office and was greeted by a blonde woman with a gentle smile and glasses. She wore her hair in a bun and a blouse and pencil skirt, looking almost the perfect picture of professionalism, but there was something in her face that made her look young, like she was somehow younger on the inside. Her desk was covered in odds and ends- picture frames and tiny glass figurines of animals and flowers and whatever the fuck else.

“Hello, Mr. Blake,” she said, her voice low and soothing- the perfect voice for talking down the crazies, he figured. Which he most certainly wasn't, which again brought him back to the question of why he was here in the first place.

“Call me Eddie,” he replied. “All the pretty girls get to.” He winked, expecting more of a reaction out of her, but her expression did not shift in the slightest.

“Alright, Eddie. Now, you're here because you've been referred to me,” she said. “Your, ah...employers refer people to me all the time. I don't exactly specialize in those cases, but we do have an arrangement set up. However, if, at any point in our sessions, you feel as though you would be more comfortable seeing somebody else, then you can talk to them about that.”

“Oh, I don't mind seein' ya one bit,” he replied, “but maybe I'd like it better somewhere else.”

Once again, she was unfazed by his flirting. “If you'd like, you can sit down wherever you want,” she said. “I'll be sitting behind my desk, for the time being.”

He sat down, irritated that she wasn't playing into his hand like he had expected. These smart ladies, these career women, always thought they were so high and mighty, like they were above the guys who hit on them just because they never got any attention back when they were in school. Eddie knew the type, and he knew the type who thought they could figure him out just by asking questions. If she thought she was going to get anything out of him, she had another thing coming. He was going to be the one who came out on top in this.

“So, the reports I've looked over say that you're very good at your job,” she said. “The entirety of this session is completely in confidence, so I think it's safe to let you know that I'm aware of your position as the Comedian and that you're not just any agent. They say you're one of their best operatives, but there have been...concerns, as of late.”

“What sorta concerns?” he asked, as if they hadn't already told him.

“Behavioral concerns,” she replied. “It's been reported that you have a habit to let your emotions get the better of you in high pressure situations and act on rage more often than reason.”

“Bullshit. I act on rage _and_ reason,” he said. “S'not my fault they don't get the joke.”

She perked up at that. “Interesting that you would bring that up here, especially considering we're not discussing your sense of humor. In fact, that statement doesn't seem to fit with anything we're discussing. What joke are you referring to?”

“Well, if I tell ya now, it'll just spoil the punchline.” He gave her a smirk that he hoped was positively infuriating. He wanted her to know that he had gotten the better of her that time.

But if she was bothered by that, she did not show it, keeping her professional demeanor. “I see. Well, I hope we can return to that subject later. Back to the subject of your rage, I think that, with work, we can find the source of it and find a way to help you control it so that you don't need to keep coming back here.”

“I can save ya the trouble. There's no source for it, and I don't need to do anythin' to control it. I get the job done damn good and that's all they need to worry about.” He snorted.

“I'm sure it doesn't just come from nowhere, and either way, I think controlling it is best for both you and everyone around you. What about when it comes out when you don't want it to? Not only do you hurt others, but you also hurt yourself.”

For the briefest second, he saw Sally, looking up at him with blood dripping from her mouth, pathetic and afraid, but he shook his head to banish that image. “I control it by usin' it for work,” he argued. “I don't lose my temper anymore. I just work things out on the job.”

“So you used to lose your temper a lot before?” she asked.  
  
There was Sally, underneath him, begging him to stop while he undid his belt. “What are you talkin' about?”

“You said you don't lose your temper _anymore_. Does that mean it gave you problems in the past?”

Sally again, older now, throwing him out of her house and life because he went off on her. He didn't like what she had said to him regarding her pregnancy and he said things he shouldn't have, he almost raised a hand to her. “What? No, fuck that, you're lookin' too deep into my words.”

“Are you sure? I find it hard to believe you've never had any trouble managing your anger.”

The smell of smoke followed him as he stormed out of the Crimebusters meeting, leaving a charred map in his wake and listening as Nelson begged everyone else not to leave. “Well, I haven't.”

“You sound defensive, Eddie.”

Anh laid on the ground of the dingy bar in Vietnam, stomach round with his unborn child, bleeding from her chest with lifeless eyes. His face hurt and he was still struggling to steady his breathing. “I'm not defensive!” he snapped, hating her for making him relive all this, for reminding him that he cared when he had convinced himself long ago that he did not.

“Why don't you just talk to me about it?” Dr. Quinzel asked gently, sounding as if she was trying to calm him down.

The final image was Laurie, his Laurie, all grown-up and the spitting image of him but only when she was mad, and she was very, very mad. She threw her drink in his face, looking ready to do worse if someone didn't stop her, and her eyes were her mother's but the look in them was Eddie's through and through.

“Because there's nothing to talk about!” he snarled. She didn't visibly flinch, but he saw the look in her eyes that someone less trained wouldn't have, and he knew that his outburst startled her. Well, good for her. That's what she got for trying to meddle in his business anyway.

“Eddie,” she said, trying to calm him with her voice, “if you want to make any progress here, you need to be honest. We can work through this, but only if we work together. Okay?”

He wanted to tell her off real good and get her off his case forever. He knew he could do it, he had seen her already starting to grow afraid of him. It wouldn't take much to push her away, to push her into giving up on him. All he had to do was turn this around on her, and that would be it.

Instead, he found himself telling her everything.

“I was always gettin' into fights when I was a kid,” he said. “Guess that's why my parents were distant, and I ran away when I was fifteen.”

~X~

By the time he reached the part about Sally, he was on such a roll that he almost forgot to hold back, but at the last second, remembered. “Things just didn't work out with her,” he finally said, trying not to give anything away, but Dr. Quinzel saw right through him immediately.

“But why not?” she asked. “There has to be a story to that, and you've come so far already...”

“Ain't something I like to talk about.”

“Neither is any of this, but you've made a lot of progress. Why don't you tell me what happened between you and Sally?”

So he did, and she listened just as objectively as she had to everything he had said so far, but then their time was up. “Next week, I'd like to hear the rest of you story,” she said as she showed him to the door. “We can pick up with what you did after you left the Minutemen.”

“Sure thing, doll,” he replied, this time using the flirting to cover up how exposed he felt as he left. This stranger, over the course of two hours, had become familiar with parts of him that he had not shown anyone before. She wasn't his friend, and he hadn't had any friends in a very long time, but still he had told her personal things. He supposed that was the point and that was her job, but it was still very new to him to be that open with anyone.

Meanwhile, she sat in her office, trying to ignore the fluttering in her stomach as she stared at the spot where he had sat. He had been a difficult case, very rough around the edges, and she had been able to tell from the beginning that he hid a volatile temper under the surface. Still, there had been something that she found undeniably charming about him and it had been hard to hide that.

He had been flirting with her from the beginning, and he was older than her, but she liked older men, and he had a very manly air to him, from his build to that scar on his face that she hoped she would get to hear the story of in one of their sessions. If she wasn't careful, she knew that there was a chance that her interest in him could go beyond professional, and it did not help that she pitied him quite a bit.

His story was a sad one, not because he had done nothing to deserve it, but because he had. She hadn't heard it all yet, but already she could tell that he was the sort of person who had become his own worst enemies, always finding himself at the source of his own problems. No matter what he did, he always seemed to mess things up for himself somehow, and had ended up very isolated and lonely because of that.

Edward Blake needed someone in his life who understood him as he was and could tolerate that and stay by him no matter what he did. He needed someone capable of talking him through things and of really helping him, and Dr. Quinzel was having a hard time not telling herself that she was perfect for him. If she let this get out of hand, she would find herself with a crush on her patient.

He was charming and he was lonely and he was handsome and he was tragic and he needed her, but beyond that, there was an air of glamour to his status as masked adventurer, and she had always loved men who could make her laugh. Perhaps she was already in too deep.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated this dumb story again

Eddie seriously considered skipping his second appointment with Dr. Quinzel, but he knew that she would report it if he did, and he still didn't want to have to deal with whatever trouble he would end up in. But he was afraid to go back in there, because he knew that he wouldn't be able to resist telling her more, that she would be able to draw more out of him no matter how he fought it. She already knew way more than he was comfortable with, but by the end of this session, she might end up knowing everything, and then what?

Dr. Quinzel was supposed to help him, he knew, but the only person who knew about Laurie, about what had really happened with Sally, was Sally. Letting anyone else in, even his therapist, wasn't something he was sure he was okay with, and he hesitated before going into her office that afternoon.

“It's good to see you again, Eddie,” she said. At least she was still as pretty as he remembered, and he took that as a consolation. “Are you ready to begin?”

“What choice do I have?” he asked with a grin, still not giving up on trying to charm her.

“You do have _some_ choice in the matter,” she replied. “You have to be here for work, but it's your choice if we talk about you and it's your choice if we try to make any progress. If you want to talk about nothing, we can talk about nothing.”

“You say that, but you've got a way of makin' a man talk.” He chuckled.

“You caught me. It's all part of the job, but I really only help when I think a patient wants to be helped. If you'd really resisted, I wouldn't have pushed.” She smiled at him innocently, but he knew that he hadn't been able to resist at all, and that she must know the sort of power she had over her patients. “But, anyway, back to my question. Are you ready to begin?”

“Where'd I leave off again?” he asked.

“You were going to tell me about what happened once you left the Minutemen,” she replied.

“Right, that. Well, I acted on my own for a while,” he said, going into the story of how he adjusted to taking on the streets by himself again. When he reached the part where realized he needed a better costume, she actually let out a little gasp and, when he looked over at her, she seemed horrified. “What?”

“You actually got _stabbed_?” she asked. This was the most emotion he had seen on her face yet, and he wondered if he had actually caused her to break her doctor facade a little bit with that information.

“Yeah,” he said, deciding to milk it, “and it was real bad too. I was all alone and it was so late, I really thought I was gonna die. Still don't know how I managed to get to that hospital, cos I blacked out at some point, but when I woke up the next morning, I hurt like hell.”

“And you were, what? Seventeen?”

“Yup, and just barely. That's when I knew I needed somethin' that would protect me a little bit better than that flimsy old costume did.”

“You've told me so much about yourself already, but we're only up to when you were seventeen.” Dr. Quinzel shook her head. “You went through so much, and so young...”

“It was nothin',” he said modestly. “I was a tough kid, an' it was all part of the job. And things didn't really get real until the war.”

“When did you serve?” she asked, and he was surprised that she didn't already know the answer to that.

“Right after I turned eighteen, shit hit the fan and the US went into the second world war,” he replied. “And that's when I got my start with the government. They used the fact that I was the Comedian as a sort of morale thing, I guess, an' then I was some big war hero and they wanted to keep me as an agent. After that, everythin' was mostly the same, except I did my crime fighting where my new boss told me to.”

He noticed now that she watched him with more interest than before, having a harder time hiding her emotions now that she'd let them slip once, and he went on to tell her about his work for the government and the villains and criminals he squared off against. This part was nice, getting to recall the glory days, but it wasn't long before he reached another part of the story he didn't like to tell.

“Sally got married,” he said, “an' I hadn't seen her in years, but it still hit me kinda hard. I ended up...goin' to her, just to see her. You can imagine how well _that_ went, but then things...well, one thing led to another.” He glossed over the affair; no matter how much he flirted with her, he doubted it was appropriate to tell his therapist all of the gritty details.

“Things fell apart when she got pregnant,” he said.

“Oh.” The doctor's eyes widened as she put two and two together. “So the second Silk Spectre is...”

“My daughter. Yeah. She doesn't know. Nobody does, except me an' Sally...and now you, I guess.” He laughed, but it was forced. A moment ago, he had seen past her facade and felt like he had the advantage, but now he felt exposed and vulnerable once again. This was getting too complicated for him, and he was still nowhere near done with the whole story.

~X~

Dr. Quinzel wasn't sure how she felt about everything Eddie told her, especially that regarding Sally. It was tragically romantic, in a way, and it broke her heart, but there was something else there, something like jealousy. She really was in too deep, if she was thinking of her patient in such a way after only their second session. Whatever he had with Sally had ended, but there was a part of him that still obviously cared about her, and it was none of Harleen's business if he did or not.

He was her patient, and there was nothing between them and there couldn't _be_ anything between them, but she was just so fascinated by him and his stories. Eddie was the sort of man she would have listened to even if she wasn't being paid to do so, and she hoped that she would be able to help him somehow. His loneliness only became more apparent with each new story he told her, and that only made her want to be the one to be there for him even more.

Throughout the rest of their session, he talked about how he got more involved with political work, and how things were for him after he and Sally split up for good. There were parts she could tell that he was leaving out, but she knew that there would be some things too confidential for even his appointed psychologist to hear, so she didn't press him for those. When he reached the point in his story when Dr. Manhattan came to be, she hated to stop him and let him know that their time was up. He seemed to be getting close to an important part, and if she could have listened to him all day, she would have, free of charge.

But she had another patient waiting, and if her growing feelings for Eddie weren't unprofessional enough, ignoring her other patients in favor of him certainly would be. And so she raised a hand to say, “I hate to cut you off here, but our time is up, Eddie. I think we're making a lot of headway in terms of figuring out your past, so I hope we can pick up where we left off next time.”

“Whatever you say, doll,” he said with that smirk of his, and she couldn't help but giggle, and his smirk grew. “I guess I'll be seein' ya.”

She watched him walk out of her office and then sighed, not able to wipe the smile off her face. It was so, so stupid, and more than unprofessional, but he was no less attractive and his story made her like him more and more. How would she be able to keep her growing feelings a secret and how would she be able to keep them from interfering with their sessions?

She knew that, if she really had an shred of professionalism left in her, she would refer him to somebody else, to make sure that he was seeing somebody without a bias, but then she wondered if she would be able to see him again at all. His flirting likely didn't mean anything, so if she shipped him off to another doctor, she wouldn't be guaranteed this chance to talk to him and he wouldn't have any reason to keep telling her about his life anymore.

What was more, she knew that he needed her, even if her attraction to him was not supposed to be a part of that. She understood what his problem was already, and she was the only one who could help him. He really did need her, so continuing to see him as a patient was the right thing to do. She was going to be selfless, and do whatever he needed, and ignore her own feelings, because she knew in her heart that Eddie needed her more than she needed him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor, delusional Harley is at it again!


	3. Chapter 3

The problem was, Eddie almost liked talking about his past, and his feelings about said past. He liked being able to get what he had been through out in the open, to have somebody else know about it, to begin to understand how it all connected to the person he had become. But to do something like that made him vulnerable, and he didn't care if she was a professional and legally couldn't use this shit against him; he hated feeling vulnerable for any reason.

On his way to his third appointment, he began to wonder what he could do to regain his power in the situation. He couldn't quite figure out how to get the upper hand from her, but he decided he would pay close attention to her throughout the appointment and see how she acted and how she reacted to whatever he had to say. Until he had a good reading on her, he wouldn't really know how to play this back to his advantage.

Settling in, he picked up on his story, once again finding himself helpless when it came to telling the truth. Even though he didn't want her to know, he wanted _someone_ to know, and he couldn't resist the opportunity, as much as he hated it. Soon, he'd reached the Crimebusters meeting, and spent a little time griping about how stupid it was, but more time talking about how strange it was to meet Laurie in person. He could still see her in the back of his mind; looking much too young to be taking on crime, but she wasn't any younger than he had been when he'd gotten his start.

“And to top it all off,” he said, “she and Big Blue kept makin' eyes at each other.”

“Did that make you upset?” asked the doctor.

“Not as much as it did his girlfriend,” he replied with a laugh, and he was pleased to see her laughing along with him. He got to the point where he went off on everyone, and he half-expected Dr. Quinzel to interrupt and ask him if some of his anger was misplaced, if some of it was meant to be directed at someone else in the room, but she didn't, and he wondered where the hell he got that idea from.

“After it was over, after I stormed out like that, I waited around outside. I knew it was a bad idea, but...I just wanted to see Laurie. Just for a little bit, see what she had turned out like.” This part of the story really, really hurt, recalling just how close he had gotten to Laurie for just a few minutes, only to be interrupted. The hate in Sally's eyes, the confusion in Laurie's that would one day be replaced with her own hate for him, and to make matters worse, she'd probably thought he had been _hitting_ on her.

“It's understandable that you would want to talk to her,” said Dr. Quinzel. “And even though her mother's...anger is understandable as well, I think she could have handled the whole situation better. You deserve to be able to get to know your only child, and she made that impossible for you to do.”

Nodding, Eddie was surprised by how much she seemed to understand exactly what he had gone through. She had yet to judge him for anything he had done, and had almost always taken his side or found some way to justify his reactions to things. No wonder he felt so comfortable spilling his guts all the time! But there were some things he had done that no one could overlook, especially not a professional, and so he glossed over the next few years of his life, wanting to make sure that they made it through to Vietnam before the session ended.

He had his fair share of war horror stories, and very rarely did he sound like a good guy, even if you took into account that he was acting under orders a lot of the time. There were still instances of brutality that even he was well aware of being too far, and he was sure that this would get him some sort of negative reaction from the doctor. Still, she only listened patiently, like she always did, until he was fresh out of stories- excluding the one that he had no intention of telling her. As if his intentions mattered in this room.

“Did anything else happen that you'd like to share with me?” she asked, and he could tell that she knew he was holding back.

“Not that I'd like to share,” he replied.

“Well, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, but if you feel like it's something relevant...”

“It's not something you wanna hear about.”

“Eddie, I think by now you know that I want to hear just about anything you can think to say.”

“I have to backtrack a little for this one,” he said. “See, at some point, I met this woman named Anh...” By the time he got to the point where he first found out she was pregnant, he wanted to take back everything he had said, but he just kept going, recounting just how he had brushed her off and ignored her, right until he reached the night before he was supposed to go home. He finished the story quietly, absentmindedly running a hand down the scarred side of his face.

“I shot her.”

There was a reaction in Dr. Quinzel's face at last, and she looked taken aback. He was sure that she would express some sort of disgust or distaste for his actions, or that something in her words would give away just how deplorable she found him, but when she spoke, that was not the impression that he got. “I can tell that you regret it,” she said softly. “I can tell that you know what you did was wrong, and I don't think I need to remind you of that. People make a lot of bad choices in their lives, but what's important is realizing the mistake and not letting your anger control you like that again.”

He was stunned, and unsure whether to be touched that she wasn't trying to be harsh on him or to try to slap some sense into her, because this was a little more serious than a “bad choice.” But then he realized that this meant she had to have some sort of bias toward him, that no professional could talk to him like that without it meaning something more. She had a weakness that he could see now, and if he used it properly, he could gain back his control in the situation.

~X~

Now Harleen knew that she was in too deep. She knew her reaction to Eddie's story about Anh was not what it should have been. He had murdered his lover after trying to abandon her, and while she was _pregnant_ , no less, and yet all she could see was that he felt bad about it. All she could see was that he wanted a family that he had never been able to have, and that he was miserable over this.

He really did need somebody to understand him, and it was only getting more obvious that she was the only one who could do that. She was the only one for him, she knew, but she wasn't sure how to let _him_ know that. It would be too much for her to say something like that to her patient, but she wanted him to know that he didn't have to be alone anymore. She didn't know how she was going to make this work out.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't forget this story.

“The dinner was supposed to be a special occasion,” said Eddie. He hadn't told her any of the true details behind why he had that dinner in his honor in the first place- there were some things that he couldn't even trust doctor-patient confidentiality with, and there were secrets he had sworn on his life not to share- but he had told her enough that she understood how important of a night it was. “And I guess it was, but ya know, I'm not one for fancy parties like that.

“Still, I tried to be a good sport about it. I know how to mingle, I can fit into those situations if I gotta, and things were goin' alright. And then Big Blue showed up, and guess who was with him?”

“Laurie?” asked Dr. Quinzel, looking sympathetic. She always looked sympathetic, always looked like she was on his side, and he knew that there was more to that than just a desire to see him get better. He had her number, whether she knew it or not, and he just had to figure out how to use it.

“Exactly,” he went on. “I tried to ignore her. I learned my lesson about trying to talk to her, of course, and I knew she probably already knew what happened by now. Sally had to have told her somethin' after we met, so I kept to myself, but she kept lookin' over at me, the whole night. Eventually, I saw her coming toward me, and I knew that it wasn't gonna end well, but I didn't try to get away. I guess I wanted to talk to her too much to be reasonable, and I let her come over.”

“And what did she say to you?”

Naturally, he went into detail with everything he could recall Laurie saying to him. It had been recently enough that he hadn't forgotten a word of it, nor had he forgotten the stench of alcohol on her breath or the look of rage on her face. She had really looked like she hated him, but she had looked more like him in that moment than ever before, and there had been no doubt in his mind that she was his daughter. How else would she have gotten his temper?

“And then she threw her drink in my face,” he finished. “Her boyfriend came over and zapped her out of there before I even had the chance to react. That's the second time I've seen her in person in her whole life, and I haven't seen her since. Probably won't ever see her again, considerin' how much she hates me.”

“That's so terrible,” the doctor said quietly, and she had a look of absolute heartbreak on her face. It was so painfully obvious that she pitied him as more than a considered psychologist, and it was, therefore, painfully obvious that she cared about him more than she should. It was such an easy matter to play her based on that.

“That's just the way it goes, Dr. Quinzel,” he said, a bit sadder than he actually felt at the moment. “Sometimes I don't feel like there's anyone in the world I can really be close to anymore.”

“I'd like to think that we're close,” she said. “I know you're my patient, but...I think I would have wanted to be your friend if we'd met under other circumstances, and if it would make you feel better to call me Harleen...I wouldn't mind that at all.” Now she was blushing, and it took all he had not to laugh.

“Is that right? Well, I appreciate the gesture, _Harleen_.”

Her blush deepened and she hesitated before saying, “You know...just Harley might sound better. All my friends call me that, anyway.”

She was making this much too easy for him, and he grinned at her and said, “You've really helped me so much, ya know? I feel like I've made it so far just by gettin' everything out in the open, and I feel much better about it all just because I had the chance to talk about it with someone who actually listens. I really don't have that many people to talk to, Harley.”

“Oh...” Her eyes softened with the sympathy he had seen so many times from her, and she started to say something, only to be interrupted by her timer. “Our...our session is over, but...I want you to know, you can always talk to me about anything. I'll see you next time, okay?”

“Wouldn't miss it for the world,” said Eddie before heading out the door, but as he walked out, he felt something strange. He had regained his power in the situation, but he had not really been lying. Somehow, talking about things really had made him feel better, if only a little bit.

But, more importantly, there was her attraction to him, something that she was not able to hide from him now. He hadn't been with anyone in a while, and Dr. Quinzel was attractive, and she so obviously wanted him, and if he gave her what she wanted, she would give him what she wanted. The way he saw it, there was no way he could lose.

~X~

It was hard to deny what she had felt for him during their session, and Harley- oh, she loved the way it had sounded to hear him say that name!- certainly couldn't deny her feelings anymore. She was falling in love with Eddie, and it didn't matter if it was unprofessional or not, it was outside of her control. He had needed her and she had helped him, and she wondered if anyone would have been able to resist falling in love after all they had shared.

And he had seemed so touched by everything she had done for him, and the things he had said to her before he left...she couldn't have just imagined that look he gave her! If she were correct, then that meant Eddie was falling in love with her as well, and if he was, then what was stopping them from being together? 

Only the fact that he was her patient, and she was sure that they could do something about that. If they were seeing each other outside of her office, she wouldn't mind referring him to someone else, even if that someone else didn't understand him the way she did. She could always talk to him when they were alone together, and she would gladly keep helping him for the rest of his life, if he would only have her.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Harley whimpered pathetically beneath him, desperate and needy as he laid her back on her desk. Eddie had decided it was high time to make his move, that she was about as vulnerable as she would ever be. He was out of stories to tell her, and without her sympathy for his past, he wasn't sure how easy it would be to come up with new ways to play her, so the best course of action was to just strike while the iron was hot.

Coming into her office that afternoon, he had acted withdrawn, prompting her to try to figure out what was bothering him. He had said that it was something that he couldn't talk about and she had insisted that he could talk to her about anything, to which he had replied that it was something he couldn't talk to _her_ , in particular, about.

“What do you mean?” she'd asked.

“Just don't think it'd be...ya know, _appropriate_.” After that, she hadn't been able to stop pushing for further information, and there had been a look of desperate hope in her eyes, and he knew that he had been right about everything, that she had been just as easy to play as he had anticipated.

Finally, he'd pretended to break down, letting out a long sigh before finally saying, “I need you,” and that had been all she needed. Finally, the barrier separating them as doctor and patient had been broken in her eyes, and she had practically lunged across her desk to kiss him. Now he had her skirt hiked up over her waist and her pantyhose ripped off and her panties discarded on the floor, and she seemed like she could hardly even breathe.

“Eddie,” she said softly, and he shivered at the sound of her voice.

The big problem here was that, though he had succeeded, he couldn't help but feel a little bit played himself. He had come out on top- literally, and he resisted the urge to laugh at that- but only after she had extracted so much information from him, only after she had made him feel so safe that he couldn't help but tell her everything there was to know. And now she knew, and no matter what power over her he may have, she had that information, and even if it had helped him get his way in the end, it was still rather dangerous information for her to have.

What was more, he just couldn't work out his own feelings, and that left him feeling so vulnerable even now that he had “won”. He knew that she had to be crazy about him at this point, but he didn't know why that idea thrilled him so much, or why he spent so much of his time thinking about her. It was the first time in a long time that he had spared this much thought on someone he wasn't trying to kill, and he had never expected to spend this much thought on a girl that wasn't Sally.

He didn't think of Harley like Sally, and he doubted he would ever see anyone in that regard, but, as much as it unsettled him, he had to admit that there was _something_ there, something more than just the manipulation to get out of something he didn't want to do. When this was over and when he was out of his therapy appointments, he had planned on finding a way to give her the slip, but now he didn't think that seeing her again would really be so bad.

And when he fucked her on top of her desk, kissing her again and again to keep her adorable little squeals quiet, he _really_ didn't think it would be so bad. In fact, keeping someone like her around would be a nice distraction from everything else in his life. He had hoped that fucking her would mean that she wouldn't be able to keep his as a patient anymore, but if he kept something going with her, he wasn't so sure it wouldn't be just as effective as the therapy. The situation was complicated enough that he would not face his own feelings just yet, but he at least could not deny that he wanted to keep her around.

When it was over, when they were catching their breath and her face was flushed, when he helped her get back into her clothes and watched her try to fix her hair back into the neat bun that he had left disheveled, they both knew that they had a lot to talk about. Her eyes lingered on him for a long time before she took a deep breath and said, “That was...unprofessional of me, but I don't regret it.”

“Well, that's good, cos I sure as hell wouldn't want ya to,” he replied with a smirk.

She smiled at him warmly, but then looked a bit troubled. “You know I can't keep seeing you as a patient if there's going to be anything between us, right?”

“I kinda figured that might happen...”

“I can refer you to some colleagues that might be a good fit for you,” she offered, already reaching for something on her desk, but Eddie had other plans in mind. This was the chance he had been waiting for.

“Do ya really have to do that?” he asked. “I don't know I feel comfortable seeing anyone else, and you've helped me so much...maybe it'd be better if ya just said I completed my therapy?” For a moment, she hesitated, and he was afraid that she saw through him and knew that he had been manipulating her to this point, but then she nodded.

“I wouldn't want you being forced to see someone you don't trust,” she replied. “And if I can't keep seeing you in a professional setting, maybe it really is better if we say you don't need therapy anymore. I'll always be there for you outside of work, you know.”

“I knew I could count on you.” He gave her his most charming smile before leaning in close and kissing her on the cheek before murmuring in her ear, “Ya know, I think after all we've been through together, I owe you a dinner. Wanna go out later this week?”

He pulled back to watch as her face lit up and she grinned, nodding. “Yeah! Just...just give a call and tell me when.” Nodding over to her desk phone, she said, “You've already got my number.”

Laughing, he said, “You're real funny, you know? I like that. But maybe you could give me a more personal number?”

~X~

Harley delivered the report just as Eddie asked of her, excited for the beginning of their relationship, a relationship that she had wanted so badly but had thought would be impossible. She was happier than she could ever remember being.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end


End file.
